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SportsChannel
SportsChannel (or SC for short) is an American cable TV network dedicated to broadcasting & producing sports-related programming 24 hours a day. SportsChannel was launched on June 1st, 1980. SC's signature telecast, SportsCenter, debuted with the network & aired it's 30,000th episode on April 12th, 2007. SC broadcasts primarily out of it's studios in New York City, New York. It also operates offices out of Boston, Seattle, Charlotte, NC & Los Angeles. The Los Angeles office, from which the late-night edition of SportsCenter is now broadcast, opened @ L.A. LIVE in early 2009. The name of the sport company was lengthened to "SC, Inc." in February 1984. SC markets itself as "The World's #1 Sports Network", a slogan that appears on nearly all company media but whose origin is unknown. Most programming on SC & it's affiliated networks consists of LIVE or tape-delayed sets of events & sports-related news programming (such as SportsCenter). The remainder includes sports-related talk shows (such as real-life ESPN-produced Around the Horn, SC-produced Out the Borders, ESPN-produced "SportsNation" & PTI) History Early months SC started with the debut of SportsCenter on June 1st, 1980. Afterwards was a pro slow pitch softball game. The first score on SportsCenter was from women's tennis on the final weekend of the US Open. To help fill 24 hours a day of air time, SC aired a wide variety of sports events that broadcast networks did not show on weekends, including Australian rules football, Davis Cup tennis, boxing & additional college football & basketball games. The U.S. Olympic Festival, the now-defunct competition that was organized as a training tool by the United States Olympic Committee, was also an SC staple during this time Professional sports arrive SC was among the earliest cable-based broadcast partners for the NBA. Lasting from 1982-84, the network's relationship with the association marked it's initial foray into the American professional sports sector. After an 18-year hiatus, SC secured a $2.4 billion/6-year broadcast contract with the NBA, thereby revitalizing it's historic compact with U.S. professional basketball. In 1983, The United States Football League (USFL) made it's debut on SC. The league (which lasted for 3 seasons) enjoyed ephemeral success, some portion of which was a byproduct of the exposure afforded through SC's coverage. On July 20th 1985, SC started airing the "SC Sports Update" (later known as 28/58), which was a condensed run-down of scores & news that aired @ :28 & :58 portions of the hour, when SportsCenter was not airing. SC still uses the :28/:58, ONLY for LIVE sporting events as of today. In 1986, SC gained partial rights to the NFL. The league agreed to the deal as long as SC agreed to simulcast the games on local TV stations in the participating markets. SC Sunday Night Football would last for 19 years & spur SC's rise to legitimacy. In the 2005 NFL season, SC began airing Monday Night Football. In 1989, SC added MLB to it's lineup with a $400 million contract; the contract has been renewed & will continue through @ least 2011. SC broadcasts each of the 4 major professional sports leagues in North America. SC has been broadcasting MLS games about once a week on SC-2 since that league's inception in 1996. In most years, the annual MLS All-Star Game & the MLS Cup championship game & in some years the Opening Night game, were shown on SC-2. With the increasing costs of LIVE sports entertainment, such as the U.S. $8.8 billion costs for NFL football broadcasts rights for 8 years. SC broadcasts 65 sports, 24-hours a day in 15 languages in more than 150 countries Expansion SC set itself apart from it's competition by using the top reporters for each of their respective sports by the early 1990's. The 1990's & early 2000's saw considerable growth within the company. SC Radio launched on May 13th, 1992. SC-2 was founded in 1994. A year later, SCNews was born. In 1996, SC purchased the "American Classic Sports Network" & renamed it SC-Classic. The youngest SC network in the USA, SC-U, began broadcasting on July 1st, 2004. SC International was started in the early 1990's to take advantage of the growing satellite markets in Asia, Africa & Latin America. In Canada, SC, Inc. purchased a minority share of CASN (the corporate logos of CASN were redesigned to match the look of SC's logo). In 2004, SC entered the European market by launching a version of SC-Classic. Then in December of 2006, it agreed to purchase North American Sports Network & on February 1st 2009, NASN was re-branded as SC America. SportsCenter's primary 3 broadcasts on SC America each day are @ 1:00 AM ET (which re-airs usually until 9:00 AM ET), 6:00 & 11:00 PM ET. In 1994, SC launched the The SC Sports Poll. The Sports Poll was the first ongoing national daily study of sports fan activities & interests in the United States. In 1997, SC began using "Skycam" for their broadcasts of the NHL. The system was later put to use in baseball, basketball & football games. In April of 2009, SC opened a broadcast production facility in downtown Los Angeles as a part of the L.A. LIVE complex across from Staples Center. The 5-story facility houses an SC-Zone restaurant on the 1st 2 floors & 2 TV production studios with digital control rooms on the upper floors. 1 of the studios hosts late-night editions of SportsCenter. In 2007, SC signed an agreement with the Arena Football League to broadcast @ least 1 game every weekend, usually on Monday nights. On January 4th 2010, SC announced plans for a new network, SC-3D, to premiere on June 11th, 2010. The new network will broadcast 85 sporting events in 3D during it's 1st year, including the FIFA World Cup match between South Africa & Mexico & the 2011 BCS National Championship Game. SC has been testing a 3D broadcast for more than 2 years. Additional broadcasts may include up to 25 World Cup matches & the Summer X Games SC's Current Owners SportsChannel has been owned by WMFL Corporation since 1980 SC-HD SC-HD, launched on January 1st 2003 @ the stroke of Midnight, is a 720p HD simulcast of SC. SC-HD (along with sister networks SC2-HD, SCNews-HD & SCU-HD) uses the 720p HD line standard because WMFL Corporation executives proposed a progressive 'p' signal which resolves fluid & high speed motion in sports better, particularly during slow motion replays. All Bristol & LA LIVE studio shows, along with most LIVE events on SC, are produced in HD. SC is 1 of the few networks with an all-digital infrastructure. Shows that are recorded elsewhere: such as real-life ESPN-produced Pardon the Interruption & Around the Horn (Washington, D.C.) are presented in a SD, 4:3 format with stylized pillarboxes. SC however, maintains a policy that any video that originates in HD, must remain in HD when aired on SC-HD. More recently, the network has come under considerable scrutiny from industry technicians & early adopters of HD due to a perceived degradation in picture quality, specifically during LIVE events. In Latin America, the 720p HD version of SC was launched as "SC-HD" on March 26th, 2009 (only in Brazil) & on December 25th, 2009 in other countries SC-3D On June 11th 2010, SC launched SC-3D, the country's 1st 3DTV channel. The 1st programming in the format will be the 2010 World Cup. SC states that another 100 LIVE events will be in 3D in the 1st year Advertising on SC Advertising on SC is sold out for months in advance. Major advertisers such as Apple, FedEx & United Parcel Service are continually buying advertisements to reach the 15-35 year old male audience. SC's ad revenue averages $441.8 million with an ad rate of $9,446 per 30 second slot SC's significant programming rights SC & it's family of networks (SC-2, SC-U, SC+ & to a lesser extent SC-Classic) have rights to the following sports & events: NFL *1986-1989 (Sunday Night; exclusive on cable) *1990-1997 (Sunday Night) *1998-2005 (Sunday Night; exclusive on cable, selected Thursday & Saturday night games) *1988-1994, 2003-2005, 2010-2012 (Pro Bowl) *2006-Present (Monday Night Football) The NHL on SC *1982-Present SC College Football *Bowl Games: 1982-present (contracts with individual bowl games; the 1st LIVE college football game telecast on SC was the 1982 Independence Bowl, Kansas St. vs. Wisconsin) *Bowl Championship Series: January 2011-Present *ACC: 1996-Present *BIG 10 Conference: 1980-Present *Select BIG 12 home games: 2007-Present (Games are purchased from SportsChannel's regional feeds (see below) on a game-by-game basis) *BIG East: 1987-2015 *C-USA: 1993-2012 *MAC: 2001-2011 *PAC-10: 1991-Present *SEC: 1983-Present *Sun Belt: 1994-2007 *WAC: 1984-2017 *NCAA Division I FCS (formerly Division I-AA), Division II & Division III playoffs (selected games) & championship games SC's MLS' Coverage *1996-2015 FIFA *FIFA World Cup: 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 & 2014 *FIFA Women's World Cup: 1999, 2003, 2007 & 2011 SC MLB *1989-2014 Little League World Series *1985-2014, occurs in late August The NBA on SC *1982-1984 *2001-2016 The WNBA on SC (Originally "The WNBA on SC-2") *2001-2016 SC College Basketball *NCAA Tournament: 1980-Present (Contract with NCAA) *ACC (some telecasts, including games in the conference tournament, are blacked out in ACC markets): *BIG 10 Conference: 1980-2017 *BIG 12: 2007-Present, SC+ (SC+ has exclusive rights to some games in BIG 12 markets to protect stations from purchasing it's syndicated package) *BIG East: 1979-Present, SC+ *SEC: 1984-Present, SC+ (through WMFL Corporation's sister network, The SEC Network's syndicated package: The SEC TV Network) Tennis Grand Slams: As of 2009, SC co-owns the cable rights to all 4 of tennis' grand slams. SC also televises other tennis events, including the following: *Australian Open *French Open *The Championships, Wimbledon *US Open Golf on SC *1980-2006 (Contracts with individual PGA tournaments) SC continues to broadcast early round coverage from The Masters, U.S. Open & the Ryder Cup. Starting in 2010, SC will broadcast all 4 rounds of the Open Championship, marking the 1st time that a golf major is an all-cable event PBA Tour *1989-Present NASCAR on SC *1981-2000 (Contracts with individual races) *2007-2014 (Contract with NASCAR) Indy Racing League *1996-Present (the full season, including the Indianapolis 500) The Arena Football League on SC *1989-2002 *2007-2012 SC also broadcasts a range of horse racing. It may sometimes acquire the rights to programming in other sports, usually because another broadcaster holds the TV rights Former Programs The LPGA Tour on SC *1979-2009 *Selected majors through deals with their respective sanctioning bodies SC's business ventures Current *The SC Sports Poll (1994-Present) *SC MVP (2006-Present, 2006-2007 as Mobile SC) *SC-Zone (1997-present) *Partial interest in the Arena Football League (2006-Present, in exchange for TV rights) The SC family of networks Television *SC (1980-present) *SC International (1990-Present) *SC-2 (1994-Present) *SCNews (1995-Present) *SCNews-HD (2008-Present) *SC-Classic (1996-Present) *SC-Classic Canada (2000-Present) *SC-HD (2003-present) *SC Deportes (2004-Present) *SC-U (2004-Present) *SC2-HD (2004-Present) *SC+ (-Present) *CASN (1980-Present, SC owns 20%) *SC-3D (premiering on June 11th, 2010) SC NOW SC NOW was a former rolling digital cable barker channel which aired from 2001-2004 & featured a scoring ticker, along with SC's promotional advertising. It mainly was used to promote SC's college sports pay per view packages to viewers. The channel was eventually discontinued with the rise of video on demand Radio *SC Radio (1992-Present) *SC Deportes Radio (starting in late 2010) Regional SportsChannel network feeds NOTES about SC's regional feeds *Each regional feed has a HD feed & an alternate feed for that region *Each regional feed also provides their own local 6:00 PM SportsCenter on weeknights & weekends Network-wide preemption Several times, SC programming has been drastically altered because of coverage of world events. Both SC & SC-2 carried NNC's coverage of the September 11th, 2001 attacks. The only original program produced after the preemption was a shortened 6:00 PM edition of SportsCenter which focused on covering the cancellations of sporting events in reaction to the terror attacks See also * List of programs broadcast by SportsChannel * SC GamePack * SC GameCourt * SportsCenter * Canada's Sports Network (CASN: The Canadian counterpart verson of SC) * The SC+ Network External links